Burial-casket



PATBNTED JAN. 5, 1904.

W. C. BOOTH.

' BURIAL -CASKET.

APPLICATION FILED r123. 14, 1903.

H0 IODEL.

1 names pzvzm cp WQTD-LITHOMWASHINC-TQN a r No. 748,692. F V PATBNTED JA-N.5,1.904. W. 0. BOOTH.

BURIAL GASKET.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 14, 1903. v

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

N0 MODEL.

- Patented January 5, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM BOOTH, OF ELMHURST, CALIFORNIA.

BURIAL-CAVSKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 748,692, dated January 5, 1904.

' Application filed February 14. 1903. Serial No. 143,403- (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern: 4

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM C. BOOTH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Elmhurst, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Burial-Caskets, of which the following is a specification.

Myinvention relates to coffins or burial-caskets; and its object is to provide a removable bottom or support for such a coflin or casket which will make it possible to remove such bottom or support upon which the body rests and dispose of it, with the body, in any suitable manner, either by burial or cremation, without destroying the casket itself. The latter is ordinarily made of expensive woods, and in a large number of cases it would be desirable to save such casket. When people are buried or cremated with proper reverence and observance and with the external ceremony which custom has long dictated, itmatters little whether the external and expensive receptacle for the dead is buried or oremated with them or not. It may well be that in many cases funeral Observances which bear heavily upon the poor can be reduced in expense to the'advantage of the latter, while preserving the external fitness prescribed by custom, which requires a proper reverence and respect in the disposal of the dead. It is certainly not necessary that the outside casing or coffin shall be buried or cremated, and yet it is desirable to consider the public opinion, which dictates that such outside receptacle shall be attractive in appearance.

The idea of my invention is that a coffin, no matter how constructed or of what material, may be provided with a removable bottom, upon which the body rests and which is locked firmly in place to the frame of the colfin itself and by a mechanical arrangement of simple construction can be released from Y such colfin and removed for further disposi ket reversed in p0sitionthat is, with its bot-' tom uppermost. Fig. 3 is a perspective View of the mechanical devices for locking and recan be instantaneously removed.

leasing the bottom from the casket shown in position for locking said bottom. Fig. 4 is a similar view of the same devices shown in the position when the bottom is released. Fig. 5 is a view of the removable bottom with the devices for covering the body. Fig. 6 is a cross-section through one side of the casket and bottom with the latter in locked position.

In the drawings, 1 represents a casket or cofiin made of any suitable material and composedof the side pieces and end pieces, as shown. The cover 4 can be secured to the coifin in any suitable way. On the inner side of the side pieces of the cofiiu are secured springs 5, which are preferably recessed into said side pieces and are provided with angular extensions 6, projecting inwardly. Upon these projections rests the bottom 7, and as the tension of the springs im-pe'lsthem inwardly the bottom will rest securely upon them until released by some positively-applied mechanism. "Such a mechanism is provided in this case and is best shown in Figs. 3 and 4. In the walls of the casket itself is arranged a frame composed of the longitudinal rods 8 8, which are provided with the cranks 9 10. Two opposite cranks at one end are connected by the cross-rod 11. The supports for the bottom, previously referred to, are provided with eyelets 12, through which the cranks pass. It is therefore sufficient to apply power at one end of one of the rods 8 to communicate motion throughout the entire system of rods and cranks, and so to withdraw the spring supports for the bottom within the recesses in the side pieces of the casket, and therefore to release said bottom. Consequently one rod 8 is square at one end, as shown at 13, and projects into an inconspicuous hole in the casket itself, as shown at 14, Fig. 1. By means of a suitable key applied to said square end that rod 8 can be turned, thereby operating through its cranks and the connecting-rod 11 the similar rod 8 and the cranks upon the other side. The result of this operation is, of course, to withdraw all the supports and to release the bottom, which, with the body supported by it, This operation can perhaps be best understood from Fig. 6, in which the spring-supports are shown beneath the bottom in proper position for supporting it. The said bottom can be made of anysuitable material and is provided with flexible sides of any suitable material, having lacing-holes and a lacing 16. This flexible material and its lacing form parts of the bottom and are entirely separate from the main body of the casket. When it is desired to remove the bottom upon which the body rests, the flexible veil or shroud is laced tightly over the body. Then the mechanical devices for releasing the bottom are operated in the manner before described, leaving the bottom of the casket free with the body upon it. At this time the shroud has been laced tightly over the corpse, concealing the same and permitting the main body of the casket to be removed. The bottom, with the body secured to it, is now ready for cremation or other disposition.

There is a special advantage arising from the use of a movable bottom in connection with a burial-casket which is that the body may be laid out directly upon the bottom and need not be transferred therefrom, as is ordinarily necessary. Thus the movable bottom of the casket is a laying-out board, upon which the entire preparation of the-body for final disposition is carried out.

' I do not limit myself to the precise constructions and arrangements herein described and shown in the drawings, as I desire to avail myself of such modifications and equivalents as fall properly'within the spirit of my invention.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is'- 1. A coffin or casket, and a removable bottom therefor, in combination with means for supporting said'bottom within the casket, such me'ans'comprising spring-supports for said bottom and means carried by the casket or coffin for releasing said spring-supports.

21A coffin provided with spring-supports on both sides thereof, a series of rods connecting said supports together, and means for operating said rods and supports in unison, in order to release said bottom.

3. A coffin or casket having spring-supports arranged Within it, in combination with a removable bottom, and with means for releasing all of said supports simultaneously.

4:. A coffin, having a rod extending through each side rail thereof, spring-supports secured thereto, and having means for supporting a bottom, a bottom, and means for applying power to one of said rods for releasing all of said spring-supports simultaneously from said bottom.

5. In combination with a casket or coffin, a bottom therefor, independent of said casket, means for locking said bottom to the casket, means for releasing it from said casket, and a shroud connected to said bottom and forming a part of the same, all constructed and arranged so that said bottom and shroud can be separated from said casket.

6. In combination with a casket, an independent bottom therefor, provided with a shroud and with means for tying said shroud over a body resting upon said bottom, supports for said bottom carried by the casket, and means for releasing said supports so as to separate the bottom from the casket.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature, in presence oftwo witnesses, this 2d day of February, 1903.

WVILLIAM C. BOOTH. 

